About Keith Vance

TA Montpelier Reporter

Keith Vance is the Montpelier reporter for the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. He's worked as a journalist in far-flung places like Seattle and Cambodia, but has found a home in "Montpeculiar", as locals call the nation's smallest capital city. You can follow him on Twitter @KeithMontpVT

03/02/2012

District energy project holds up repaving State Street

MONTPELIER — Because of the district energy project, which city officials say is nearly $1 million over budget, State Street won’t be repaved until 2015, according to state officials.

That means the pocked stretch of Class 1 town highway that runs in front of the Statehouse won’t be repaved for three more years.

Because State Street is a locally owned state route, it’s the responsibility of the Vermont Agency of Transportation to pave it, while the city is tasked with simply filling potholes.

Last summer, the state repaved lower State Street from Bailey Avenue to the Middlesex town line, but the original plan was to lay fresh pavement down to Main Street.

Michael Fowler, the Transportation Agency’s pavement management engineer, said while that was the plan, Montpelier officials told the state to hold off on paving that section because of the pending district energy project.

That’s what Montpelier’s Department of Public Works Director Todd Law said, too. The state is now “more or less waiting on us,” he said.